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China demands release of Huawei executive arrested in Canada

Posted on Friday, December 07, 2018 by Judy Cobb

Meng Wanzhou

New Zealand and Australia have stopped telecom operators using Huawei's equipment in new 5G networks because they are concerned about possible Chinese government involvement in their communications infrastructure.

According to USA officials, however, the arrest of Meng had been planned for some time, and was something of an open secret in the Trump administration.

It said that Canada, at the request of the United States, had arrested a Chinese citizen "not violating any American or Canadian law".

Gordon Houlden, director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, said Canada and the USA have an extradition treaty and Canada has obligations that not even the prime minister can change.

Meanwhile, news of the arrest has sparked fears on Wall Street that the trade war between the USA and China could escalate. "The company believes the Canadian and US legal systems will ultimately reach a just conclusion", said a statement from Huawei.

The arrest of Meng Wanzhou, who is suspected of trying to evade US trade curbs on Iran, could further complicate a trade standoff between Beijing and Washington.

The shock arrest of Meng Wanzhou, who is also Huawei Technologies Co Ltd's chief financial officer, is riling authorities in Beijing and raises fresh doubts over a 90-day truce on trade struck between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping on the day she was detained. A person familiar with the matter told Reuters she faces extradition on charges related to us sanctions violations.

The detention of Meng, who takes her family name from her mother and has also used the English first names "Cathy" and "Sabrina", has once again thrown the spotlight on Huawei at a time of heightened global concerns over electronic security.

The ministry added it could not provide further details because of a publication ban that was sought by Meng. All cited national security concerns in barring the Chinese firm from their next-generation networks.

He declined to talk about the specifics of the case and said he didn't know if Trump knew about before it happened but added that there has been enormous concern about the practice of Chinese firms like Huawei allegedly using stolen US intellectual property.

The news comes the same day Britain's BT Group said it was removing Huawei's equipment from the core of its existing 3G and 4G mobile operations and would not use the Chinese company in central parts of the next network. "China trade relations that China is more likely to wait for this process to move a little bit further in the legal proceedings rather than retaliate immediately", he said, but it wouldn't surprise him if an American executive gets arrested.

'She is sought for extradition by the United States, and a bail hearing has been set for Friday.

Canadian authorities arrested a high-profile executive from Chinese technology giant Huawei on Thursday, a move nearly certain to inflame tensions between Washington and Beijing.

A profile of Huawei's chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou is displayed on a Huawei computer at a Huawei store in Beijing, China, Thursday, Dec. 6, 2018.

Huawei said it complies with all laws and rules where it operates, including export controls and sanctions of the United Nations, the U.S. and European Union.

"This reminds the Chinese, and ourselves, that we are part of an global order backed by the U.S". He added: "Sometimes Chinese aggression is explicitly state-sponsored and sometimes it's laundered through many of Beijing's so-called "private" sector entities". "The potential slowdown in global growth is also something the markets are pricing in".

'The Canadian police, at the request of the United States, arrested a Chinese citizen who had not violated any USA or Canadian law, ' the embassy said in a short statement on its website.

No one answered the door when Postmedia News visited the Dunbar home Thursday afternoon, but neighbourhood residents said they recognized Meng from media reports, though they did not want to talk on the record.

The tensions between the U.S. and Huawei started a few months ago due to allegations of spying by the Chinese government using Huawei's equipment.

According to The Wall Street Journal, since 2016, USA prosecutors have been examining whether Huawei violated United States trade sanctions with Iran. Huawei has repeatedly denied this.

A foreign ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying, said then that China hoped the United States would refrain from taking actions that could further undermine investor confidence in the U.S. business environment and harm its domestic economy.

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